Palace scores Bishop David for calling drug war 'biggest lie' in the last three years

Malacañang on Wednesday hit back at Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David for his alleged misrepresentation of the government’s war on drugs to the public.

David told a democracy forum on Monday that the biggest lie that he has heard in the last three years with President Rodrigo Duterte at the helm of government is that “the drug war is meant to eradicate illegal drugs.”

The bishop questioned the supposed warrantless arrests of drug suspects and lamented the support of some Catholics to the alleged extrajudicial killings in the course of the campaign.

In a statement, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said it is only under the Duterte administration where the real situation on illicit drugs in the country “has been exposed in all its ugliness and terrifying magnitude.”

“Its poisonous tentacles are continuously being cut by the government and its forces wherever they are found and however they are protected by the merchants of death,” he said.

“The voice of satisfaction of the great majority of Filipinos with the drug war has been consistently resounding.”

Panelo cited the results of the December 2018 survey of the Social Weather Stations in which 66 percent of Filipinos say that the number of illegal drug users in their area has decreased.

Panelo added since Duterte took office nearly three years ago, 164,265 drug personalities have been arrested, 9,503 barangays have been cleared from drugs, and P25.19 billion worth of drugs and equipment have been seized.

“These figures are real numbers and unalterable facts that can not be erased even by the magical wand of Bishop David,” he said, as he suggested to the prelate “to listen to the resounding collective voice of his parishioners that he may find their true and genuine sentiments.”

Panelo said David should have focused his attention to the spiritual needs of his flock as well as helping in the rehabilitation of those affected by the earthquake instead of unleashing a “cynical view if not an outright misrepresentation of the President’s war on drugs.”

“While one is entitled to his own opinion, the truth however cannot be removed from the facts obtaining nor can they be altered to form a biased opinion,” he said.

“It maybe worthwhile for the good Bishop to heed the advice of Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle to just give succor to those affected by the recent earthquake instead of resorting to negative rhetoric against the government,” the Palace official added. —KBK, GMA News